218 BIRD FRIENDS 



for bird-protection. In some cases the club has served 

 as a center of general interest for the whole town and 

 has been a means of arousing a community spirit. 



Other organizations which have been active in the 

 protection of birds and wild life in general are the 

 New York Zoological Society, the Boone and Crock- 

 ett Club, the Camp-fire Club of America, the Ameri- 

 can Game Protective and Propagation Association, 

 the Wild Life Protective Association, and the State 

 Game Protective Associations. 



Private game preserves. There are in the United 

 States about five hundred private game preserves. 

 These may be controlled by hunting-clubs or pri- 

 vately by individuals. They are kept for the sake 

 of raising game, either naturally or by artificial 

 methods, so as to furnish shooting for the owners. 

 Some of them are duck preserves and marshes, and 

 some are upland preserves for big game or game- 

 birds. They may vary in size from 1000 acres or 

 less up to 125,000 acres. In New York State the 

 private game preserves comprise an area of 800,000 

 acres. In these preserves native game is protected 

 and is sure to increase, and some of the birds spread 

 out and help to maintain the game-supply in the 

 surrounding country. So while there have been 

 some objections raised against these private game 

 preserves, on the whole they tend toward the con- 

 servation of bird life. 



In Dearborn, Michigan, Mr. Henry Ford has a 



